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If you’re a Star Wars fan, you may have felt a recent disturbance in the Force. Don’t be alarmed, though—it’s just the upcoming (March 22) release of a new tabletop game from Fantasy Flight Games, and it’s set against the backdrop of the titanic struggle between the heroic Jedi and the villainous Sith Lords.

It’s enough to make you wonder whether there’s any aspect of the Galactic Civil War that hasn’t already been exhaustively explored on the tabletop. But, as it happens, there is.

Star Wars: Legion is a miniatures battle game that pits armies of Rebel and Imperial troops against one another in deadly tactical combat. Where X-Wing and Armada let players fight it out in the cold void of space, this new release takes the action planetside, with ground-based clashes between forces of infantry, vehicles, and giant mechanical war-walkers.

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Once you’ve chosen your units, it’s time for hostilities to commence. Legion does a fantastic job of combining tactical challenge with fast-flowing gameplay. At the start of each turn you and your opponent will choose from a selection of command cards, placing them face-down on the battlefield before simultaneously revealing them. These dictate who gets to act first, but they also control the order in which your units activate. You'll constantly need to ask yourself which is more important to your battle plans: greater control over your troops or the chance to strike before your enemies can.

An unpainted walker.

An unpainted airspeeder.

Painted rebels.

Painted stormtroopers—along with Mr. Vader!

The game uses a split turn structure, with players moving and attacking with a single unit at a time. This means that the battle is in a state of constant flux. You’ll need to continually reassess your position and respond to your opponent’s moves. You’ll maneuver your way across the battlefield, ducking behind cover, unleashing volleys of laser fire and charging into hand-to-hand combat, with casualties steadily mounting on both sides.

Speaking of combat, it’s handled by a slick and elegant dice-rolling system that will feel familiar to X-Wing veterans. Units roll color-coded custom dice representing their skills in ranged or close-quarters fighting. With hit and block symbols on the dice themselves, there’s no complicated combat math to bog things down, and fights resolve quickly and intuitively.

It all adds up to a polished and elegant mechanical experience. But what’s really impressive about Legion is how faithfully it recreates the cinematic feel of the Star Wars films themselves. And that’s especially evident in its array of characters, units, and vehicles, which all behave exactly as you’d expect from the movies.

Stormtroopers are abysmally bad shots, rarely managing to take out more than a handful of rebel troops over the course of a game. But they’re useful for laying down suppressing fire, pinning down enemy units and stopping them from getting to the heart of the fray. Luke Skywalker is appropriately heroic, charging into battle and deflecting laser blasts with his lightsaber. Darth Vader is a slow-moving menace, stalking towards your troops before effortlessly tearing them apart. Then there are the vehicles, an assortment of speeding, shrieking, stomping death machines that strafe, blast, and claw their way through enemy lines.

It makes for some incredibly dramatic moments: generals colliding in fierce lightsaber duels, infantry squads wiping each other out in a hail of cannon fire, plucky troops sneaking behind a towering Imperial walker to target a weak spot in its armor. The story of the game soon becomes as much a part of its appeal as the unfolding contest of wits and cunning, and it can be positively exhilarating, even to someone like me who (please don’t tell anyone) isn’t all that interested in Star Wars.

It all comes at a price, though. The game’s starter set includes Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and enough Rebel and Imperial minis to fight small-scale skirmishes. But if you want to play bigger battles, you’ll need to do some shopping. New units will set you back anywhere from $12.95 to $49.95 for larger vehicles. You’ll also have to invest time and effort into building and painting your models, which means that Legion really isn’t a game for casual players. To get the most out of it, you’ll want to go all-in, and that’s likely to be expensive. Also annoying: the base set comes with only a tiny handful of dice, and you'll need to buy more separately, which just seems stingy.

But if you’re a Star Wars fan looking to recreate the thrill of the series’ spectacular battle scenes, this is a slick, polished translation from screen to tabletop. It’s a fast-paced, tactically challenging rollercoaster, and it’s impressively faithful to its source material. The Force is strong with this one.

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39 Reader Comments

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

So, I've read this article twice, and I'm still struggling to ID the exact innovations referred to. I'll be honest, it's been close to 10 years since I read the detailed rules of 40k, but especially the initial paragraph right after this one seems to be talking about the basic point buy system that's been in place forever. Which hardly seems innovative.

I normally wouldn't pick at this nit but to be honest 40k or AoS is the 800lb gorilla so you really do need to compare directly to it in order for fans of the miniatures market to really care.

As an aside. usually there's a blurb about the author in the article, but I don't see one here. And I don't recognize Mr. Duffy's name. Admittedly I don't read Cardboard Technica all the time so he could be writing there and I wouldn't notice, but it seemed an odd omission.

Hi ikepuska, thanks for reading. It's always tricky drawing a line between trying to describe the feel of a game and giving an impression of how it works mechanically, and I usually favour the former over the latter. But thankfully there are comment threads where I can go into a little more detail!

The unit activation system is really pretty interesting. The command card you play at the start of your turn determines how many of your units you'll be able to issue orders to. Units with orders activate at a time of their controller's choice, while units without orders activate in a random order. As a general rule, ordering more units decreases your chance of acting before your opponent. It means you really need to think about when you play each of your command cards. If you depserately need to use a specific unit, like a tank-killer, you might want to play a card that only lets you issue one order so that you can take an important action before your opponent can react. The down-side is that you'll lose a lot of control over the rest of your army's activation, and it creates quite a sense of the fog of war.

It also means there's potential for some deep metagaming. The preview stuff I got from the publisher didn't come with a huge array of command cards, but I can definitely see the potential for pairing different ones with different configurations of units to pull off some powerful effects. For example, cards that give buffs or extra actions to particular types of troops. I expect to see more coming out in the coming months as more generals are released, and I reckon it'll add an almost CCG-like element to the game with players hunting for effective synergies between troop abilities and card effects.

The key thing I took from my games, though, was the cinematic feel. I think that's what's going to draw a lot of people to the game, and the mechanical side is going to keep hardcore and tournament players very happy.

I'm deep into Imperial Assault (75 painted minis so far) and prefer that style of gameplay so I don't see myself switching over to Legion. My group has had some pretty cinematic moments in our games as well.

If you're new to the hobby and want to paint minis for either game look up Sorastro on Patreon or YouTube. He's posted dozens of high quality tutorial videos for IA, and Fantasy Flight has commissioned him to make guides for Legion as well.

Hi ikepuska, thanks for reading. It's always tricky drawing a line between trying to describe the feel of a game and giving an impression of how it works mechanically, and I usually favour the former over the latter. But thankfully there are comment threads where I can go into a little more detail!

The article ain't that long, so unless you have constraints by Ars and/or Conde, it seems like it shouldn't be that tricky. Give the impression of the game play and then give impression of the mechanics.

Dropping 'hints' about innovation but not an actual explanation (not necessarily in-depth) just makes for a poor article.

I'd like to interject that using superglue for plastic models is usually dis-recommended, and that if you want to compare smaller scale skirmish type stuff, it's better to compare it to something like Necromunda/Mordheim/Armageddon:SW (GW's answers to skirmish), or to others such as Infinity, Mercs, etc.

I'm not particularly warm towards the game personally, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt till I've played it, as some stinkers sounded cool, and some that I enjoyed a lot sounded kinda dumb. But war-games are very much a matter of feel and personal choice. I'd never want to play something like Napoleonics, but despite being a clunker, I love battletech, and for the same thing, of most Napoleonic games or other simulation games have way more book-keeping than I want to deal with, while I like the way Battletech's book-keeping feels (Yes, you may assume that I am terrible at picking games. I'm pretty sure considering how long I've stuck with Warhammer 40K, that I am)

It's games like this that make me really wish that I had a group of friends that were into tabletop games (and rich enough to be into this kind of game) to play with. The game sounds really fun and I've really enjoyed watching FF games when Tabletop did an episode with one.

As an aside. usually there's a blurb about the author in the article, but I don't see one here. And I don't recognize Mr. Duffy's name. Admittedly I don't read Cardboard Technica all the time so he could be writing there and I wouldn't notice, but it seemed an odd omission.

The unlinked author name usually means he's really new and the CMS hasn't been fully set up with his information or he's a freelancer.

When you review a game or product, it's probably a good idea to put the name of the product in the title, or at least until the first line of the review. You don't mention the name until the 4th paragraph of the review. Why???

I lost all interest in legion when I found out they were using a subtly different scale of miniatures than the more boardgamey Imperial Assault.

Being able to use the existing assault minis - given they're nominally the same people in the same universe in the same scale - would have been a good way to expand a legion starter force, or at least have them as alternate sculpts to add some variety to your storm trooper hordes. But nope, you basically need to start over. Games Workshop have finally been getting away from this sort of user-hostile thing, I don't need that back in my life.

This looks quite fun to play. My favorite part of playing 40k with friends was building custom terrain to play on, and that is something you cant really do with x wing or armada. Sure, we made custom set pieces from broken corvettes, but now we have a star wars miniatures that can be used with custom star wars themed terrain.

I lost all interest in legion when I found out they were using a subtly different scale of miniatures than the more boardgamey Imperial Assault.

Being able to use the existing assault minis - given they're nominally the same people in the same universe in the same scale - would have been a good way to expand a legion starter force, or at least have them as alternate sculpts to add some variety to your storm trooper hordes. But nope, you basically need to start over. Games Workshop have finally been getting away from this sort of user-hostile thing, I don't need that back in my life.

Great picture - "look behind you, Luke!" (from the retconned Expanded-Contracted-Disney-Universe, where actually Padme had triplets and the third one was Luke's evil doppelganger with an overactive pituitary gland)

This looks quite fun to play. My favorite part of playing 40k with friends was building custom terrain to play on, and that is something you cant really do with x wing or armada. Sure, we made custom set pieces from broken corvettes, but now we have a star wars miniatures that can be used with custom star wars themed terrain.

Being an original Star Wars fan, I can't say this activity is any different than what Lucas did, but still, Disney has a wonderful way of beating a dead horse to dust and still making money on it.

At least this likely has more entertainment value than collectable value for those interested in it.

"Guys, a media company is making money from their intellectual property by making a game instead of letting it rot on the shelves! How witty am I ??!?1?"

"original star wars fans" complaining about anything new in the star wars universe is the true dead horse.

Have you ever heard the same fucking song over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again?

Until you threw the radio out the car window?

That's what Star Wars has become - again - to us. I get it that there are NEW fans, because they weren't even gleams in their parents eye when the original Star Wars came out, and that's fine. They can dance to that tune until their brains explode, just like we did.

But for those of us who have done that dance, we're done with it. I never once said Disney can't do this, or shouldn't do this.

But I'm seriously looking forward to the day when Star Wars MMMCXI comes out and you go screaming off into the night because you know you're going to get the same old characters put out in virtual tokens that your kids will demand because "IT'S STAR WARS!!!!!" and you've not only done that dance too much, you'd be content if that song was never played again.

It will happen.

And while I may not be around for it, you will, and you'll think of this post, and you'll know I'm laughing my ass off now that you're wearing the same shoes as I walked in. So regardless of how insulting you are today, I'll still have the last laugh.

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Ok you pretty much just EXACTLY described how you choose to setup a Warhammer 40k army... Not seeing the innovation here?

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Ok you pretty much just EXACTLY described how you choose to setup a Warhammer 40k army... Not seeing the innovation here?

It would appear the innovation is in the paint used. Warhammer Fantasy and WH40K require more colours than White, Black, Tan and Camoflage Green.

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Ok you pretty much just EXACTLY described how you choose to setup a Warhammer 40k army... Not seeing the innovation here?

It would appear the innovation is in the paint used. Warhammer Fantasy and WH40K require more colours than White, Black, Tan and Camoflage Green.

Not necessarily, does the 3 colour rule still apply? Then it could just be White, Black and Tan...

I lost all interest in legion when I found out they were using a subtly different scale of miniatures than the more boardgamey Imperial Assault.

Being able to use the existing assault minis - given they're nominally the same people in the same universe in the same scale - would have been a good way to expand a legion starter force, or at least have them as alternate sculpts to add some variety to your storm trooper hordes. But nope, you basically need to start over. Games Workshop have finally been getting away from this sort of user-hostile thing, I don't need that back in my life.

If you were planned on using Imperial Assault miniatures for Legion, how were you planning on getting the necessary other Legion game components (the tokens and cards that are very specific to Legion)?

Regardless of scale, the game expansions would never be cross-compatable. The miniatures are only a portion of the game, not the entirety of the game. The Order tokens in Legion are very important. Likewise Command cards are critical. Unit upgrades are also, for the troops. The minis are important, but Imperial Assault has never included Legion game components.

FFG decided to make a different game a different scale, I don't know how that is a user hostile thing. If you are going to play Legion, you are going to have to buy Legion stuff regardless.

I say this as a guy that owns more IA stuff than anyone who has a good life-gaming balance, much to my wife's chagrin.

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Ok you pretty much just EXACTLY described how you choose to setup a Warhammer 40k army... Not seeing the innovation here?

Minor nitpick, but calling them three "separate" RPGs is a bit of a stretch, since they all are mechanically the same game. They are basically 3 different sourcebooks for different styles of campaign, and can be mixed.

Heroic Jedi? Dont you mean traitorous Jedi? The sith are anything but vilains. They only want to bring peace and order back to the galaxy not chaos and war like those Jedi that commited treason when they turned against the republic.

Excellent! Another Fantasy Flight game in my favorite property! Quick someone hold my X-Wing minis! Oh sorry, please also take my Star Wars card game LCG decks too. Anyone want my Game of Thrones LCG set and expansions? I also have all these LOTR LCG cards!

This game will no doubt be fun and build a great player base by canabalizing all the player groups from all their other games, just like their previous releases have. It will all be fun, fun, FUN! until they release their next game and everyone flocks to that.

Just remind yourself that Fantasy Flight is in the business of designing and releasing games, not supporting and developing them after they've maid their money on a handful of expansions and you'll be ready for the next release.

At first glance, Legion is a similar proposition to the iconic dark-future wargame Warhammer 40,000. You’ll collect plastic troops, super-glue them together from multi-part kits, and paint them before deploying for battle. But while it has some superficial similarities to games that have come before, it soon becomes clear that Legion has plenty of innovations of its own.

You’ll face some tough decisions before you even get your troops to the table. For each battle, you’ll need to decide which units to field and which characters will lead your forces. Will you recruit a mass of basic infantry squads, overpowering the enemy by sheer weight of numbers, or will you upgrade your troops to elite status, with a smaller but deadlier army packing heavy weapons and specialist equipment? Will you deploy speeder bikes that race across the battlefield, attacking enemies and getting out of harm’s way before they have a chance to strike back? Or will you rely on slower, heavier battle walkers armed with devastating laser cannons that rain death on anyone unlucky enough to come within range?

Ok you pretty much just EXACTLY described how you choose to setup a Warhammer 40k army... Not seeing the innovation here?

there's more explanation in the comments it should be the second comment in the list